Because MAD provides full 24-bit PCM output, applications using MAD are able to produce high quality audio. Even when the output device supports only 16-bit PCM, applications can use the extra resolution to increase the audible dynamic range through the use of dithering or noise shaping.

I've got a good set of speakers on my system and I am curious as to whether it really does improve mp3 playback quality.

My PC has an Asus Xonar soundcard and it outputs through JBL 305 speakers. I have given Potamus a good trial as I was skeptical about the claimed benefits of extra audio resolution, but it is now clear to me that it makes a huge difference. When I played through a directory of mixed bitrate mp3 files the sound was tighter and more detailed than I had ever previously heard. I would go as far as to say my ghast was flabbered

If you want to hear great sounding mp3 files I highly recommend you give Potamus a try. What it lacks in features is more than offset by its audio quality.

It is also incredibly light on resources, it uses <40MB RAM when playing.

I run across this thread the other day, i decided to try Potamus out. It is as good as it say's. I have my sound card outputed to a Bell 3030 tube amp, driving a pair of Polk Audio Monitor-4 speakers. the sound was amazing. i did a comparison with Audacious. the sound quality from audacious was not even close as it was with Potamus. i was using various High Bitrate .mp3 & .ogg vorbis files.

Because MAD provides full 24-bit PCM output, applications using MAD are able to produce high quality audio. Even when the output device supports only 16-bit PCM, applications can use the extra resolution to increase the audible dynamic range through the use of dithering or noise shaping.

When I first read this I immediately thought of snake oil. Converting 16 bit audio to 24 bit to make things sound better - I sincerely doubted this would be of benefit. Anyway, I read the following:

This is a great plugin not because it increases bitdepth, but because it DECODES in a higher bitdepth. In other words, the MP3s are decoded with a higher level of precision. So, even if you have to use 16-bit output (or even a mere 8-bit) then it should come out in better quality.

I felt there was only one way to try this out, so I took some albums which I have only ever heard on CD, converted them to 320Kbps VBR mp3s, and I then listened to see if I could hear any differences.

Logic says the lossless audio from a CD should sound better than a lossy mp3 file.

The first album I tried was ABC's "Lexicon of Love." I bought it many years ago and I still play it on a regular basis. Methinks I'm getting old

Anyway, I listened to the album and it was a revelation. The album has lots of orchestra in it, and the mp3 playback revealed numerous instruments which I had never previously heard when playing the CD. I was impressed.

I then played Depeche Mode's "Violator." This is pure synth with a bit of guitar thrown in for good measure, and the detail that emerged from the mp3s was unbelievable. It sounded like a tarpaulin had been removed from the speakers and I could finally hear clear audio. The top end was crystal clear, the midrange was highly detailed, and the bass was defined and punchy. I can not believe how much of this album I've missed even though the CD has been played to death.

I finally gave my all time #1 favorite album a try - The Enemy's "It's Automatic." If you've never heard this album (and I suspect you haven't as it's an indie release) I can't recommend it highly enough - don't let the name of the group put you off, the album is not political, it's just absolutely brilliant.

Unfortunately there is an almighty flaw with this album, namely it was mastered by muppets who have wholehearted subscribed to the loudness wars. If you've never heard of this watch this brief video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UjQc0dM4H4. Excessive volume effectively trashes the audio, and this drives me nuts. What is going on in their heads?

YOU NEED THIS - this plugin is great it makes all audio files sound cleaner. and best of all it adjust the wave output on the fly reducing clipping from poorly recorded music

So did it make any difference to the playback of "It's Automatic"? You bet it did. I always found the CD hard to listen to, I guess my brain was being fried trying to work out what instruments were what because of the excessive audio levels. When I listened to the mp3s on Potamus the album was easy to listen to, and the detail that jumped out was amazing. The drums even had some punch.

If you're looking for good sound Potamus delivers in spades. It is advertised as a high quality audio player and it ain't kidding - it's the dogs doofers when it comes to mp3 playback. Please give it a try, especially if you've got a good pair of speakers.

... by default pulseaudio and alsa are configured for 44.1KHz 16-bit audio. At the 44.1/16-bit settings everything sounds great, but I figure if the quality can go higher and I’m not fussy about a bit of extra CPU usage then I may as well bump the quality settings up a bit to take full advantage...

Thank you for suggesting Potamus. I have been looking for a replacement for my favorite directory player / small fast windows music player - 1by1 - and this looks like a good option, in addition to the decoding quality.

Potamus doesn't have the file browser, doesn't show a picture of the album art, and doesn't have any way to construct even the single playlist that 1by1 directory browser has, but otherwise it is very workable replacement in the very small, very fast, category. As stated, use a file manager to find the directory, then open with Potamus, and you've got a high quality very quick way to play songs in a directory.

I'm trying out Potamus now. Honestly I can't hear any difference from DeadBeef (with inbuilt resampler removed) or mpv with whatever it uses. Admittedly I usually play FLAC files and have a fairly well tweaked PA config already with sox-vhq resampler and 32 bit float processing. Even tried some 24/96 files.
I can hear a possible improvement in higher frequency clarity and "airiness" with 320kb/s mp3 files so if you usually listen to mp3 there may be a small advantage. libmad is a MPEG decoder library so I imagine it may be the reason mp3s sound better, but it would not be used for any other format so would have no effect. Lossless files still sound better than mp3 if you listen closely.
I'll keep Potamus installed but won't be switching from DeadBeef for everyday use.

I can hear a possible improvement in higher frequency clarity and "airiness" with 320kb/s mp3 files so if you usually listen to mp3 there may be a small advantage. libmad is a MPEG decoder library so I imagine it may be the reason mp3s sound better...

I see Potamus as being ideal for anyone who listens to mp3s and doesn't want to tinker with system settings to get excellent audio quality. It is also excels at playing audio that has been trashed by overly loud mastering.

In case of Linux based machines one could directly use alsa-lib feed the samples to kernel, which in turn transfers them to the audio chip. Modern distributions intercept ALSA output and hook those applications to the PulseAudio audioserver. PulseAudio allows on-the-fly switching of audio output between headphones, HDMI output or Bluetooth headset and other fancy stuff that you would expect from modern operating system. In that case one might use PulseAudio libraries to feed the PCM samples directly to PulseAudio server. There are of course libraries like libao which build yet another abstraction layer on top of ALSA, PulseAudio and others, but at the moment of writing it seems to be not so well maintained in Ubuntu package management.